Artist Quotes by Sean Scully

17 Artist quotes by Sean Scully

Scully’s focus on abstraction and texture comes through clearly here, offering a concise look at how he builds meaning from stripe and hue. The quotes form a useful snapshot for readers exploring contemporary abstraction.

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Painting is profoundly emotional. When I finish a painting, I'm usually extremely sad.

Sean Scully

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I probably use more grays than any other artist in the history of art.

Sean Scully

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Imagine a world without art: it's George Orwell's nightmare!

Sean Scully

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That's the job of art: to undo the logic of the world.

Sean Scully

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I've always wanted my art to be global rather than local. I want to make paintings that people everywhere can relate to.

Sean Scully

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I was always artistic - right from childhood - but my love of painting came a bit later. It followed my love…

Sean Scully

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When I was a young kid at art school, I loved the sensual geometry of Poliakoff, which, of course, is inherent in…

Sean Scully

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I was the only one to go to university, and the last thing my dad wanted was for me to be an…

Sean Scully

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When I got into art school, I thought it was paradise. I wanted to be an artist so much that I was…

Sean Scully

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I started at school. When I painted, all the girls would come and sit around me. I realised that this was a…

Sean Scully

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I was doing an interview with a curator, and he asked me to sum up art in one word. Before he even…

Sean Scully

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My art is based on impurity. You have to mix things from different refined cultures to get something raw, to make it…

Sean Scully

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The power of a painting has to come from the inside out, not the outside in. It's not just an image. It's…

Sean Scully

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I work on stretched linen canvas, sized so that the surface already has a sense of tension when I begin. It is…

Sean Scully

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I look at my paintings for a very long time before letting them out of my studio. I like to get on…

Sean Scully

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I do believe abstraction is and was meant to embody deep emotion. I believe that's its job, in the history of art.

Sean Scully

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Art is transformative. It's not 2+2=4. It works like the sea. It changes geography through its constant and relentless movement, just the…

Sean Scully

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More by Sean Scully

I probably use more grays than any other artist in the history of art.

Sean Scully

Image

I was always artistic - right from childhood - but my love of painting came a bit later. It followed my love of music.

Sean Scully

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My job is to return abstraction to the people: in a sense, to popularize it without lowering the bar, which is a lot easier…

Sean Scully

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My childhood was extremely unhappy. That's not to say that my parents didn't love me. But it was traumatic, and of course, art doesn't…

Sean Scully

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I do believe abstraction is and was meant to embody deep emotion. I believe that's its job, in the history of art.

Sean Scully

Image

I was doing an interview with a curator, and he asked me to sum up art in one word. Before he even finished asking…

Sean Scully

Image

I was the only one to go to university, and the last thing my dad wanted was for me to be an artist. But…

Sean Scully

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My work is very serious, and I use a lot of black, too.

Sean Scully

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When I got into art school, I thought it was paradise. I wanted to be an artist so much that I was really driven…

Sean Scully

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After my son died, I went to a psychiatrist. He proved - or I proved - that Sigmund Freud was correct when he said…

Sean Scully

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I started at school. When I painted, all the girls would come and sit around me. I realised that this was a really good…

Sean Scully

Image

When I was a young kid at art school, I loved the sensual geometry of Poliakoff, which, of course, is inherent in my own…

Sean Scully

Image